NASA specialists observed a powerful auroral light on Mars caused by the ejection of mass from the Sun's atmosphere on September 10, 2017. The glow, which turned out to be 25 times brighter than other similar events on the Red Planet, was recorded by the American artificial satellite MAVEN. This was announced in a press release on the Phys.org website.
Mars does not have a magnetosphere that contributes to the emergence of the aurora (aurora), like the earth. The magnetic fields of the Earth and some other planets, such as Jupiter, direct the flow of high-energy particles to the poles, where the glow usually occurs. In the case of the Red Planet, photons bombard the entire atmosphere, not just the polar regions. As a result, the upper layers of Mars' gas shell begin to emit light in the ultraviolet spectrum.
According to scientists, the outbreak caused a twofold increase in the flux of radiation falling on the planet's surface. The data obtained by spacecraft will help develop safety systems for astronauts who will land on Mars in the future.
A powerful solar flare occurred on September 10 at about 19:00 Moscow time. There have been only four major explosions since early September. Initially, a series of five weak bursts of M-class energy was observed, and on September 6, an explosion followed, which turned out to be the largest in the last 12 years and one of the five most powerful explosions on the Sun in the entire history of observations. The second powerful outbreak, which was classified as class X, occurred on September 7, and the third on the next day, September 8.